ELMONT, N.Y. - Two years ago, trainer Rusty Arnold lost an Acorn Stakes he didn't think he could lose. Friday, he will try to win an Acorn the oddsmakers will suggest he can't win.
In 2001, Arnold sent out the lightly raced though mega-talented Victory Ride in the Acorn, a Grade 1 race for 3-year-old fillies. Despite having never raced in a stakes, Victory Ride was sent off the 7-5 favorite. She found room along the inside turning for home but fell a neck shy of 50-1 shot Forest Secrets.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Four quality graded stakes will be run as a prelude to the 135th Belmont Stakes
Denon and With Anticipation are the highweights at 122 pounds for the Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on turf Saturday.
The Manhattan drew a field of 11 Wednesday.
The race also attracted the first three finishers in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Handicap May 3 at Churchill Downs. In that race, longshot Honor in War held off the Bobby Frankel-trained Requete. Frontrunner Patrol held on to finish third.
AUBURN, Wash. - A wide-open field of 10 older horses, each eligible to be claimed for $10,000, will do battle at one mile in Friday's featured seventh race.
While it is devilishly difficult to predict who will be ahead at the finish of the headliner, it is a good bet that Be the Bunny will be leading early.
CALGARY, Alberta - King Me, who won seven races last year to become Alberta's champion claimer, seeks his second victory at this meet in Friday's optional claiming sprint which is the featured eighth race at Stampede Park.
King Me, an 8-year-old gelding, blossomed last spring after arriving in trainer Don Gilkyson's barn from his winter base at Turf Paradise in Phoenix. He moved steadily up the claiming ladder and ended the year with earnings of $69,397.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bear Fan is the only undefeated filly nominated for Saturday's $100,000 Desert Stormer Handicap at Hollywood Park - and the one with the most to prove.
In four starts, Bear Fan has won three overnight races and the $100,000 Fleet Treat Stakes against California-breds last summer at Del Mar. An ankle injury kept her out of training over the winter, but she returned to finish in a dead heat for first with That's Our Tricky in a six-furlong allowance race at Bay Meadows on May 15.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Bay Meadows Breeders' Cup Sprint will feature speed in El Dorado Shooter and even more speed in Presidio Heights.
The two have captured the past four sprint stakes run in northern California, going wire to wire each time.
They have met one time, in the Danville Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on March 22.
MIAMI - For trainer Enrique Alonso, Saturday cannot get here quick enough.
Alonso will send out Built Up as one of the favorites in the $75,000 Ponche Handicap, a race scheduled for last Saturday but postponed a week after only four horses were originally entered. Racing secretary Bob Umphrey ultimately lured a field of seven for the six-furlong Ponche, which will go as the 12th of 13 live races on Saturday's program.
"He couldn't have been doing any better than he was last week," Alonso said of Built Up. "I was very disappointed, but what can you do?"
ELMONT, N.Y. - The Flash Stakes has been bittersweet for trainer Tim Tullock.
In 2001, Tullock won the race with Buster's Daydream. Last year, he ran Renegade Warrior, the favorite, who suffered a leg fracture at the five-sixteenths pole and was euthanized.
On Friday at Belmont Park, Tullock will saddle Juventus in the $100,000-added Flash, a five-furlong race for 2-year-olds. Six colts and geldings were entered in the Grade 3 Flash, including the Todd Pletcher-trained entry of Chapel Royal and Korsakoff. All runners carry 114 pounds.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Menacing Dennis was all over the racing map in 2002, winning a sprint for statebreds at the California State Fair in Sacramento, finishing 10th in the Preakness, and placing in stakes at Hollywood Park and the Big Fresno Fair.
Friday, Menacing Dennis makes his 4-year-old debut, and first start in eight months, in an optional claimer over six furlongs at Hollywood Park. The $55,000 race marks his first start for trainer Doug O'Neill after a transfer from Jeff Bonde over the winter.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trickey Crew, who was first claimed in 2001 for $20,000, has made his way back to his original connections after seven barn changes, and is now headed to the Claiming Crown at Canterbury Park.
He earned a berth into the $50,000 Iron Horse, to be run July 19, by winning a prep for the race last month at his home track of Lone Star Park.
Now a 7-year-old, Trickey Crew showed up for a claiming price of $4,000 at Hawthorne Race Course on March 1, and was taken out of that race by his breeder, Larry Dyson.